That’s all it took for Peter Forsberg. Three games, before he was back on the shelf. The Avs throw the words ‘groin problem’ around the way guys in those stenciled t-shirts throw ‘bro’s’ to each other, so whether Forsberg really had a groin issue for last night’s game in Dallas – well, as Foppa always lobs around, “We’ll see.”

As of right now, I don’t think Forsberg has a serious problem and will be out long. But might I be wrong about that? Hell yes, I might.

Never have I encountered a more mystifying person and player than Forsberg. As soon as you feel like things are going to be fine with him, something always pops up. That’s why I was surprised for about, oh, a tenth of a second last night when Avs Vice President, PR man and Official Voice of the Avalanche, Jean Martineau, told me Forsberg wouldn’t play because of a groin issue.

Here’s what I think might be the case: Forsberg wasn’t going to play all along last night. But rather than just say he was too tired to play, they said he had a groin pull.

Why they would do that, though, if that’s the case, doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why get the fans all worried – as they always are about No. 21 – by saying he’s hurt again?

As of tonight, the Avs aren’t saying a lot about Forsberg. Tomorrow will tell the story whether he really was/is hurt. He’ll probably skate in the morning, and after that? We’ll see.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

A few other thoughts on the Avs on a Monday night in Atlanta, and a few other things:

– If David Jones is going to get as many minutes as he’s been getting, and going to play sometimes on the top line as he’s done, he’s going to have to put the puck in the net at least once. So far, he’s done the square root of Sweet Fanny Adam on the score sheet, and it’s not helping the team.

– Ruslan Salei cost him and his team lot by making the foolish choice to fight Dallas goon Steve Ott last night. There was no further word on Salei’s eye injury today, which I take to mean very bad news. If it were good, the Avs would have come out with something by now. Salei should have left the fighting – especially of a guy like Ott – to one of the Avs’ tough guys. Instead – and I know some people will say it was honorable coming to Jordan Leopold’s defense right away – he fought Ott himself. All that did was rob the Avs of one of their top D-men of the moment, and one of Francois Giguere’s big moves at the trade deadline. It wasn’t brave – it was stupid.

– Why didn’t Cody McLeod or Cody McCormick go after Ott later in the game?

– Why the NHL returned to Atlanta, I’m not sure. There is NO buzz for hockey in this town. There was no Thrashers story in the big local paper today, and no mention of them on the local news.

– The fact that the Avs didn’t call up a defenseman today from the minors is a great sign that both Adam Foote and Jordan Leopold will play against Atlanta. Leopold checked out OK after the hit from Ott.

****Update – This was written before I got the news Jeff Jillson will probably be recalled, once he clears waivers. So, there’s your answer – Salei will be out a while, and we’ll see about Foote and Leopold for Tuesday.

– With my impatience level, if I had to live in Atlanta and drive in the traffic today I withstood, I would be Michael Douglas all over again in “Falling Down.”

– HBO’s “Real Sports” is the best sports journalism on television, bar none. There’s a fascinating story on right now about Mike Marshall’s new pitching motion theory, and how it would prevent all arm injuries. While newspapers still break about 90 percent of all meaninigful sports news – and always will, because we’re not in bed with the teams and sports we cover like most TV people -“Real Sports” makes up for a lot of the other 10 percent.

Adrian Dater’s best-selling book, “Blood Feud: Detroit Red Wings v. Colorado Avalanche, The Inside Story of Pro Sports’ Nastiest and Best Rivalry of its Era” is available at bookstores and Amazon.com.

His latest book, “Denver Broncos: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is available at the same locations.

I suspected the same as you about Forsberg–instead of saying, “We’re sitting him, because we got 4 points out of three games against Dallas/Anaheim, and we’re good with that, and don’t want him to REALLY get injured,” they are saying, “It’s, uh, a groin strain.” I’m just surprised they didn’t say “upper-body injury.” That said, maybe this is just the denial approach…
…as for the Avs not calling up a D from the minors, they did put Jillson on re-entry waivers.

I suspected the same as you about Forsberg–instead of saying, “We’re sitting him, because we got 4 points out of three games against Dallas/Anaheim, and we’re good with that, and don’t want him to REALLY get injured,” they are saying, “It’s, uh, a groin strain.” I’m just surprised they didn’t say “upper-body injury.” That said, maybe this is just the denial approach…
…as for the Avs not calling up a D from the minors, they did put Jillson on re-entry waivers.

“Never have I encountered a more mystifying person and player than Forsberg. ”
I agree whole-heartedly with your comment there. As a gigantic Forsberg fan drinking beers with other freakish Forsberg fans, many theories arise as to the nature of his strange ways. Given his constant battle with injury and pain, many of my friends have posited that Forsberg has a painkiller addiction problem. Many geniuses struggle with their brilliance and self medicate. Forsberg has been the brunt of so many cheap, nasty blows that codeine may have been the only way he could cope with the pain.
I really hope this isn’t true, this beer fueled imagination. He’s my role model and I think the world of the guy. But someone who is in constant pain has to manage it somehow.

“Never have I encountered a more mystifying person and player than Forsberg. ”
I agree whole-heartedly with your comment there. As a gigantic Forsberg fan drinking beers with other freakish Forsberg fans, many theories arise as to the nature of his strange ways. Given his constant battle with injury and pain, many of my friends have posited that Forsberg has a painkiller addiction problem. Many geniuses struggle with their brilliance and self medicate. Forsberg has been the brunt of so many cheap, nasty blows that codeine may have been the only way he could cope with the pain.
I really hope this isn’t true, this beer fueled imagination. He’s my role model and I think the world of the guy. But someone who is in constant pain has to manage it somehow.

Great story, blog, whatever, until the last 2 paragraphs. This is a hockey section. Can we please stick to hockey and leave out football, baseball, basketball, tv shows, politics, traffic reports, etc? You have incredible insight into the Avs and the NHL. That’s all I want to hear about in this part of the paper. Thanks.

Great story, blog, whatever, until the last 2 paragraphs. This is a hockey section. Can we please stick to hockey and leave out football, baseball, basketball, tv shows, politics, traffic reports, etc? You have incredible insight into the Avs and the NHL. That’s all I want to hear about in this part of the paper. Thanks.

Adrian, you’ve been beating this Forsberg story for a few days now. I believe in one of your blogs from last month, you prognosticated that he would be injured after about 5 games played. Did you lose a bet with Kisla or something? We, the fans, know Peter’s injury history very well, but we’re still happy that he’s back home. That’s probably the main reason he came back to Denver. His legacy is safe here.

Adrian, you’ve been beating this Forsberg story for a few days now. I believe in one of your blogs from last month, you prognosticated that he would be injured after about 5 games played. Did you lose a bet with Kisla or something? We, the fans, know Peter’s injury history very well, but we’re still happy that he’s back home. That’s probably the main reason he came back to Denver. His legacy is safe here.

You know things are picking up again when we start spending less time dreaming of the team of old, and paying good attention to the games at hand. Our dear Av’s are getting back into prime form, and while I’ll be willing to let it slide this year just on g.p., I see no reason why we can’t bring the giant jello mold home to Denver in ’09. Keep it up boys, yer doin’ a fine job.

You know things are picking up again when we start spending less time dreaming of the team of old, and paying good attention to the games at hand. Our dear Av’s are getting back into prime form, and while I’ll be willing to let it slide this year just on g.p., I see no reason why we can’t bring the giant jello mold home to Denver in ’09. Keep it up boys, yer doin’ a fine job.

This town (ATL) is certainly not a hockey town. The hockey fans here are certainly passionate, but there are so few of us that we are overlooked. As an Avs fan stuck here in the South, I am often left wanting more hockey. Thank God for the Center Ice package and XM radio though (not to mention the internet). See you at the game tonight.

This town (ATL) is certainly not a hockey town. The hockey fans here are certainly passionate, but there are so few of us that we are overlooked. As an Avs fan stuck here in the South, I am often left wanting more hockey. Thank God for the Center Ice package and XM radio though (not to mention the internet). See you at the game tonight.

We drove up from the Mississippi coast to see the Avs tonight in Atlanta. The traffic is pretty bad, although when I was visiting Denver last month it wasn’t any picnic on I-25 with that sinkhole. You could try walking or use MARTA.

As far as no buzz in Atlanta for hockey, well, if your team ranked as low as the Thrashers, what would you expect? I mean how long ago were the Avs not in the playoff race and they were practically giving away tickets to games at the Pepsi Center? We came up for a playoff game last year when the Thrashers made it in and there was a much bigger buzz. If Colorado hadn’t picked up who they did, wouldn’t there still be the non-believers who didn’t jump on the Avs bandwagon?

Those things said, I agree with your comments about Jones, Salei, the Ott hits (wasn’t he the one that took out Svatos a few years ago?) going unchecked after the game was already thrown away, and sadly our injured players. We’re still hopeful though for tonight…

We drove up from the Mississippi coast to see the Avs tonight in Atlanta. The traffic is pretty bad, although when I was visiting Denver last month it wasn’t any picnic on I-25 with that sinkhole. You could try walking or use MARTA.

As far as no buzz in Atlanta for hockey, well, if your team ranked as low as the Thrashers, what would you expect? I mean how long ago were the Avs not in the playoff race and they were practically giving away tickets to games at the Pepsi Center? We came up for a playoff game last year when the Thrashers made it in and there was a much bigger buzz. If Colorado hadn’t picked up who they did, wouldn’t there still be the non-believers who didn’t jump on the Avs bandwagon?

Those things said, I agree with your comments about Jones, Salei, the Ott hits (wasn’t he the one that took out Svatos a few years ago?) going unchecked after the game was already thrown away, and sadly our injured players. We’re still hopeful though for tonight…

AD, Keep on blogging about whatever you want to blog about. I find your dips into other topics, even letting us into your personal life a little bit, interesting and entertaining. Don’t worry about Mr. Grumpy Gills Dave over there, he doesn’t have to read what he doesn’t want to read. The blogosphere is different than the newspaper.

AD, Keep on blogging about whatever you want to blog about. I find your dips into other topics, even letting us into your personal life a little bit, interesting and entertaining. Don’t worry about Mr. Grumpy Gills Dave over there, he doesn’t have to read what he doesn’t want to read. The blogosphere is different than the newspaper.

It is a shame that Mike Marshall’s motion is not embraced by MLB just because it looks funny. Wasn’t Dick Fosbury considered loony when he came up with the Fosbury Flop? It’s amazing that all of these pitchers have these arm surgeries and then go back to pitching the same exact way save some minor tweaks and expect the results will be different.

Hopefully the HBO story will show how stupid MLB and Little League are. They ruin these kids’ arms when there is a solution out there.

It is a shame that Mike Marshall’s motion is not embraced by MLB just because it looks funny. Wasn’t Dick Fosbury considered loony when he came up with the Fosbury Flop? It’s amazing that all of these pitchers have these arm surgeries and then go back to pitching the same exact way save some minor tweaks and expect the results will be different.

Hopefully the HBO story will show how stupid MLB and Little League are. They ruin these kids’ arms when there is a solution out there.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.